Pa. Primary turnout sets new record

People came out in record numbers to cast ballots in the primary Tuesday, drawn by a heated presidential race and large state House contests.

Tina Pritts, Somerset County elections director, was predicting a turnout of 40 percent. But she said she was not surprised when 44 percent of the county’s 52,875 eligible voters went to the polls.

“There was a lot of publicity for the presidential candidates,” she said.

Thirty-four percent of voters turned out for last year’s primary. Two years ago, the primary drew 26 percent of registered voters.

Pritts said she was not aware of any problems Tuesday and added that everything went well. The addition of more scanner machines allowed the elections board to release results shortly after 11 p.m., an earlier time than usual.

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“Our precincts were able to return their equipment right away,” she said. “Two additional scanners to help the county count absentee ballots sped up the counting process.”

Casselman Borough was the first precinct to turn in its results at 8:47 p.m. The last results of the evening came from Middlecreek Township and Seven Springs Borough, which share a polling place along Barron Church Road. Results from those precincts were delivered to Somerset at 10:15 p.m.

Democratic Party Chairman John Vatavuk had made a prediction that voter turnout would fall between 40 and 45 percent.

“I thought with the state House races and presidential race the numbers would be up,” he said. “Forty-four percent is a good number.”

But even though the numbers were up, a small percentage of Somerset County residents actually vote, Vatavuk noted.

“When you figure there’s a certain percentage of the population not even registered to vote, it makes the percentage really low,” he said.

Bruce Hottle, the newly elected chairman of the county Republican Party, said he was hoping for at least a 50 percent voter turnout.

“With five Republicans running to fill Bob (Bastian’s) seat, with all the campaigning, I thought there would be enough interest to get at least a 50 percent turnout of voters,” he said.

Hottle said people who fail to vote have no right to complain about who wins a nomination and is eventually elected.

“It takes a crisis sometimes to get people to come out and vote,” he said, referring to the high turnout in the Rockwood Area School District, where voters rejected a ballot question asking for a major tax increase.

In Somerset County, Carl Walker Metzgar won the Republican nod for state representative in the 69th District, receiving 2,475 votes. He will face Democrat Ken Warnick, who pulled 3,211 votes.

In the 72nd District, Democrat Frank Burns received 1,618 votes to win his party’s nomination. He will face Chris Voccio, who was uncontested on the Republican ballot. In the heated presidential race, Hillary Clinton dominated Barack Obama, winning 8,510 votes to his 3,235.

The results are not final until the county computation board meets. The board will meet on Friday and should have its work completed by next week, including write-in results.

As for the campaign signs that have been plastered across the county, Pritts said there is no deadline to remove them.

“We ask candidates to remove their signs as soon as they can,” she said.